Opinion AGO 07-1001(2009).
Case Date | August 17, 2009 |
Court | California |
California Attorney General Opinions
2009.
Opinion AGO 07-1001(2009).
TO BE
PUBLISHED IN THE OFFICIAL REPORTS OFFICE OF THE
ATTORNEY GENERAL State of California EDMUND G. BROWN JR. Attorney General No. 07-1001August 17, 2009EDMUND
G. BROWN JR. Attorney General MARC J.
NOLAN Deputy Attorney GeneralTHE
HONORABLE JAMES F. PENMAN, PROSECUTING CITY ATTORNEY FOR THE CITY OF SAN
BERNARDINO, has requested an opinion on the following question::May a badge that resembles a peace
officer's badge be provided to and displayed by a public employee who is not a
peace officer, but who has been granted limited peace officer powers in order
to perform his or her official duties, for use as identification in the course
and scope of those official duties?CONCLUSIONS
A badge that resembles a peace officer's badge may be provided to
and displayed by a public employee who is not a peace officer, but who has been
granted limited peace officer powers in order to perform his or her official
duties, for use as identification in the course and scope of those official
duties, provided that the badge accurately identifies the public employee by
his or her specific limited-powers position.
ANALYSIS
In 2007, we concluded that giving an honorary badge to a private
citizen who has no peace officer authority would violate California law,
specifically Penal Code section 538d(c),(fn1) if the badge so closely resembles
a genuine peace officer badge that it is likely to deceive "an ordinary
reasonable person" into believing that the holder is a peace officer.(fn2) In
that opinion, we noted that the gift of such a badge does not confer peace
officer status on the recipient, nor does it give him or her any of the
authority or powers of a peace officer.(fn3) The question now arises how our
2007 opinion would affect, if at all, public employees or officers who are not
classified as "peace officers," but who nonetheless possess limited peace
officer powers.
In the case at hand, a charter city has authorized a number of
its employees to exercise limited peace officer powers pursuant to Penal Code
section 836.5.(fn4) Among them are environmental control officers, the director
of water reclamation, environmental control technicians, city attorney
investigators, parking district security officers, code compliance officers,
refuse field inspectors, the director of animal control, animal license
checkers, animal shelter attendants, animal health technicians, animal control
officers, business license inspectors, and parking enforcement officers. The
city has granted all of the designated classifications the authority to issue
citations for violations of the laws they are charged with enforcing, and has
granted many (but not all) of them the authority to make arrests for such
violations.(fn5) In light of our 2007 opinion, we are asked whether these
employees may properly possess and display badges that resemble those issued to
full-status peace officers. For the reasons that follow, we conclude that such
badges may be provided to and displayed by these limited-powers officers for
use in the course and scope of their duties.
We have previously distinguished between attaining the
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